For over 350 years, nurses have
had a profound effect on the quality of Canadian life.
Nurses
were fundamental to the development of New France. The
Augustine
nuns, who arrived in Quebec in 1639 to establish a medical
mission that was expanded to become the Hôtel-Dieu
[e.g. graduation pin
2000.111.123],
cared for both the spiritual and physical needs of their patients
and introduced the first nursing apprenticeship training in
North America.

During the nineteenth century, Catholic orders, such as the
Grey Nuns
[e.g. graduation pin
2000.111.186;
uniform cape
2000.111.381],
and those from other denominations, such as Anglican and
Mennonite, recognized the need for health care for frontier
settlers and carried their medical missions across Canada.

In early English Canada, the task of nursing, including
midwifery, often fell to female family members, with the
occasional consultation by a physician. The few hospitals that
existed employed working-class women who provided the mostly
indigent patients with rudimentary bedside care.

By the late nineteenth century, hospital care and medical
services had been expanded and improved for a growing
population. At the same time,
Florence
Nightingale [photograph
2000.111.424]
was developing a system to train middle-class women in nursing,
which served as a model, particularly in English Canada.

The first formal nurse training programme based on the hospital
apprenticeship model was established in 1874 at the General and
Marine Hospital in St. Catharines, Ontario
[e.g. nurse's cap
2000.111.403;
graduation pin
2000.111.240],
spawning a proliferation of schools in every major hospital
across Canada.

The graduates and teachers of these schools turned their
attention to the professionalization of nursing by lobbying for
licensing legislation and establishing professional
organizations (notably the
CNA
[e.g. commemorative pin
2000.111.18] ),
professional journals (notably the Canadian Nurse) and
university training for nurses [e.g. graduation pins
2000.111.267;
2000.111.13]
(starting with the
University
of British Columbia in 1918 [e.g. graduation pin
2000.111.175] ).
With higher education, nurses' responsibilities expanded. By the
1960s, hospital nursing had become increasingly scientific
[e.g. syringe case
2000.111.117.1;
syringe
2000.111.117.2 a-g]
and specialized.

The first nursing sisters to serve officially with the Canadian
military were the volunteers who helped the wounded in the
Northwest Rebellion of 1885. In 1899, 1900 and 1902, small
contingents of Canadian nurses were sent to South Africa to care
for the sick and wounded in the South
African War (Boer War).

In 1901, nurses officially became a component of the Royal
Canadian Army Medical Corps, with nursing sisters
Georgina Fane Pope and
Margaret Clothilde Macdonald being
appointed as the first full-time Canadian military nurses
[e.g. medal sets
20020108-001;
20000105-049]
in 1906. Over 3,000 nursing sisters served in the First World
War, and twice that number served during the Second World War.
Military
nurses continue to serve during peacetime and in peacekeeping
activities.

In the early twentieth century, nursing programmes were
established for the prevention of disease and for public health
education [e.g. graduation pin
2000.111.214].
Initially involved in the control of epidemics and maternal
care, public health nursing [e.g. nurse's kit
2000.111.494.1]
expanded into the community and schools with programmes in
sanitation, vaccinations, mental health and well-baby clinics.

Home and maternity care were provided for by many organizations,
most notably the
Victorian
Order of Nurses [e.g. pin
2000.111.54].
This unique Canadian organization was established in 1897 by
Lady Aberdeen, who was the wife of the Governor General of
Canada and President of the National Council of Women.

In the 1920s, the public health movement turned its attention to
the needs of Aboriginal communities and new settlers in remote
parts of Canada. The Canadian Red Cross, for example,
established a series of outpost nursing stations in the North
and other remote parts of Canada.

In the 1930s, the Quebec government established an outpost
project to supply nursing services to new districts colonized
during the Depression. The infirmières de colonie
dispensed medicines and attended to the needs of the settlers,
as portrayed in the popular television series,
Blanche.
Outpost
nurses worked under harsh frontier conditions, dealing
with childbirth, emergencies and accidents, at times without the
help of a physician (Lillian Stevenson Nursing Archives and
Museum).

After the Second World War, the nature of nursing changed
considerably with the expansion of the health-care system and,
in 1968, with the introduction of medicare. In an effort to meet
the nursing shortage, nursing schools expanded and programmes
for nursing assistants [e.g. nurse's cap
1999.267.166]
were introduced. Nursing became yet more scientific and
specialized, particularly in areas such as critical care and
neonatal care. For the first time, visible minorities and men
were encouraged to enter the profession. In the 1970s, nurses
turned to organized labour [e.g. commemorative pins
2000.111.74;
2000.111.73]
to improve their working conditions and salaries.

Today, there are 265,000 nurses in Canada providing health
care in a variety of hospital, community and home settings, from
major cities to isolated areas. Important elements in the
current crisis in health care are the scarcity and working
conditions of nurses in an environment where the population is
ageing and requiring greater nursing care.